<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Your Loving Fingers Seek For Mine by MistressofHappyEndings</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29455068">Your Loving Fingers Seek For Mine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressofHappyEndings/pseuds/MistressofHappyEndings'>MistressofHappyEndings</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Poetry in Motion [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/F, M/M, Sappy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:20:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,677</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29455068</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressofHappyEndings/pseuds/MistressofHappyEndings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nicky and Joe have something to ask Booker.  He'd just like to know why he has to wear a tux for them to do so ...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Poetry in Motion [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923037</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Your Loving Fingers Seek For Mine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Just a little something that seemed appropriate for Valentine's Day.  I hope you enjoy!  :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Booker crosses his arms and stares at the gathered group in his living room.  “I thought we were going to the opera tonight?  Isn’t that why you made me dress up in this monkey suit?”
</p>
<p>It wasn’t something he is particularly interested in doing, but Nicky loves the opera, and that is sufficient reason for him to endure it.  Nicky doesn’t often ask to go, but his favorite singer is performing, and, like Joe, Booker loves to indulge the Genoan when he can.  Nile had also seemed excited by the prospect of going, another new experience for her.  Faced with his little sister’s obvious enthusiasm and his lover’s quieter joy, Booker had known he was going to cave before a protest could even pass his lips.  
</p>
<p>The knowing looks from Andy and Quynh hadn’t been appreciated, though, and he’d made them pay for it by making sure that they’d have to endure the evening with him.  If he had to dress up, then so did they, and they hated doing so even more than he did.  They had been suspiciously compliant with his demands, and that should have been his first clue that something about this evening wasn’t quite right.  
</p>
<p>“We are going to the opera,” Joe confirms lightly, stepping forward to smooth a hand down the front of Booker’s pristine white shirt, leaving it there when it comes to rest over his heart, “but our tickets are for the weekend performance.  Forgive the deception, habibi, but we have an ulterior motive for asking you to dress up for us tonight.  Besides the fact that you look absolutely ravishing in a tuxedo.”
</p>
<p>“Joe…” Andy says admonishingly.
</p>
<p>Joe turns his head and raises an eyebrow at her. “You cannot tell me I am wrong, boss.”
</p>
<p>Andy runs an appreciative eye over the confused Frenchman and smirks.  “No, you’re definitely not wrong,” she easily agrees, “but I think maybe you should get on with telling him why he’s in a tux sometime soon.”
</p>
<p>“Yes, please, enlighten me as to why I am wearing <i>this</i>,” he plucks distastefully at the black suit jacket, “when you know how much I dislike doing so.”
</p>
<p>His lovers don’t answer with words.  Instead, Joe and Nicky each take one of Booker’s hands then gracefully fall to one knee before him.  Booker’s eyes widen at the implication of their positions, and he swallows hard against the sudden lump in his throat.  He instinctively tries to take a step back but is thwarted when the grips around his fingers tighten.
</p>
<p>“W-what is this?” he stammers, his blood gathering speed and force as it races through his veins.  “What are you doing?”
</p>
<p>“We want you to marry us.” Nicky states simply, though his eyes and face betray the love and adoration he feels for the man towering above him.  He is holding a small black box in his free hand.  “There might not be any church or state that would recognize a union such as ours, but we don’t care about that.  This is between us, and we want everyone to know that you belong to someone, even if they won’t know who.  Will you?  Will you wear our ring and be ours?”
</p>
<p>“Why this?  Why now?  The two of you have never married, despite the laws changing so you could.  Why would you want this with . . . me?” He stumbles over the last word as fear and hope riot in his heart. 
</p>
<p>Nicky tugs Booker’s hand to his lips and presses a gentle kiss over his knuckles.  He keeps his hand pressed to his cheek as he quietly explains.  “You are correct.  We weren’t married before our first deaths, so we never had that experience or desire.  Once we found each other, society was not so kind to a union like ours, so it was never something we could have officially.  When times had changed, and it was acceptable to be more public, we had been together for so long already that it never seemed like it was necessary.”
</p>
<p>“But you, <i>ya amar</i>,” Joe continues softly, “you do know what it’s like to wear someone’s ring, to have someone who loves you enough to take an oath in front of God and man that binds you together until death parts you.  And we do.  We love you that much and more.  So, here and now, before God and our family, we are asking you to be with us for the rest of our lives, however long those may be.  Will you marry us, Sebastien le Livre?”
</p>
<p>Booker stares down at them with a wide, wild eyes then turns his panicked gaze to their sisters.  Andy and Quynh are smiling, their arms around each other’s waists, while Nile has one hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with joy, and that’s when it finally hits him.  This is really happening.  This isn’t some kind of auditory hallucination.  They had heard the same words he had coming from the men kneeling before him and wanted it for him as much as they did.  
</p>
<p>He gasps as the realization sinks in, and his knees hit the floor with a painful thud as they give up on holding him upright.  He lists forward and ends up with his face buried against Joe and Nicky’s shoulders.  Their arms come up around him to cradle his shaking body against their living warmth.
</p>
<p>“Bastien?” Nicky asks worriedly.  “<i>Tesoro</i>, are you all right?”
</p>
<p>He clutches at their shirts so tight his knuckles crack and shakes his head.  He doesn’t know what he’s feeling, only that it’s so much, too much, all at once.  He can’t even cry, his shock is so great.  The warmth surrounding him shifts, and a low, mournful sound slips past his lips at the pending abandonment, but instead of leaving him, the warmth only settles more completely around him, sheltering him in strength and softness.  The tears find him then, rolling down his cheeks in a slow, never-ending torrent. 
</p>
<p>When he finally calms down, he is still being held tightly, quiet words of love and concern being whispered into his hair in a mishmash of languages.  He straightens from his slumped position and looks at the two men who have held his heart for so, so long now.  Their faces are as wet as his, but they both smile at him, tentative, fragile curves of their mouths, and reach out, Joe’s hand to the side of his face, Nicky’s to his neck on the opposite side.  
</p>
<p>Joe’s thumb rubs softly against his cheek as he says, “We didn’t mean to overwhelm you so, <i>habibi</i>.  We just love you so much, and we wanted to show you somehow.  If we have overstepped –”
</p>
<p>“<i>Non, non</i>, you have not,” he reassures them as best he can with a throat still tight with tears.  “I love you, too, Joe, Nicky, both of you, so much.  I just … I never thought I would marry again, but I want it.  I want it with you both.  So, yes, I will wear your ring, but – but I don’t have ones for you.  I should have ones for you.”
</p>
<p>Nicky’s smile widens, and he holds out the small velvet box again so Booker can see what’s inside it better.  Booker takes the box and gasps at what he finds.  He traces the tip of a finger against the curved metal pieces then looks up at them for an explanation. 
</p>
<p>“They are beautiful, aren’t they?” Nicky says admiringly.  He takes the interlocking set out of the box and delicately pulls them apart until there are three rings in his palm.  “Joe designed them, and a friend of Andy’s made them for us.  As much as we want the world to know you are spoken for, we also want everyone to know we have been claimed, too.”  
</p>
<p>He takes one of the rings then holds his open hand out to Booker.  “Will you put them on us, Bastien?  Make us yours.”
</p>
<p>Unable to speak for all the emotion clogging his throat, Booker plucks the two rings from Nicky’s palm.  Both of his soon-to-be husbands offer their left hands to him.  With a nervous laugh and trembling fingers, Booker slides one ring onto Nicky’s finger and presses a kiss over the silver band.  Then he does the same for Joe.  Once he’s made his claim, the two men take Booker’s hand in theirs and put their own claim on him.  
</p>
<p>He stares down at the ring now circling his finger, feeling its slight weight, and he feels a smile spread wide across his face and a happy laugh escapes him.  He falls forward and gathers his husbands to him in a tight embrace, still laughing, as they encircle him in turn, their laughter joining with his.
</p>
<p>A few moments later the trio is surrounded by their sisters, kissing and congratulating them, until all six of them are sprawled on the living room floor in a happy mess.  Andy eventually gets everyone up off the floor and chivvies them into the kitchen where a cake and champagne waits for the newlyweds.  Booker indulges in just one glass of champagne before switching to seltzer water for the rest of the night.  The cake is cut and pieces are laughingly smashed into faces before others are passed out for actual eating.  
</p>
<p>The three women don’t linger long over the cake, though.  With knowing smirks, they bid the newly-pledged husbands farewell and leave them to their wedding night.  
</p>
<p>Joe comes up behind Booker and slides his arms around his waist.  “Come, notre mari,” he whispers into his ear, “we have a whole night planned just for you.”
</p>
<p>“Hmm, yes,” Nicky purrs as he presses close to Booker’s front and begins plucking at the small, pearl buttons on his shirt.  “And you won’t be needing this suit anymore.”
</p>
<p>A slow smile of anticipation spreads across Booker’s face as he drops one hand to cover Joe’s over his stomach and raises the other to cup Nicky’s jaw.  “I like the sound of that.  Lead the way, <i>mes couers.</i>”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>